When former Mayor Richard M. Daley floated the concept of a second NFL team in Chicago before the 2012 season, fantasy trumped reality.

The possibility appeared as impractical as it was improbable. Daley sounded hopelessly out of touch, stuck in another era, even suggesting government assistance for any new stadium plan despite severe city and state budget crises. Daley's romantic notion created a brief sports-talk radio buzz before vanishing into the land of bad ideas alongside the Cubs moving to Rosemont and the Blackhawks trading Patrick Kane.

But after the NFL took the extraordinary measure this week of approving two teams in Los Angeles, given the reasons that compelled Commissioner Roger Goodell to support the moves, it is understandable why a local reaction would be: Why not Chicago too?

What if a rogue billionaire like Rams owner Stan Kroenke sees potential in what is now the NFL's third-largest market and wants to fund a Super Bowl-worthy stadium privately and move a struggling franchise here? How many of the Red Zone-watching, fantasy-football-obsessed millennials the league wants to cater to might adopt a second team in a city passionate about the sport? Has anybody claimed ChicagoJaguars.com yet?

Any logical rationale used to dismiss those questions changed the minute the NFL endorsed Kroenke's plan to bolt St. Louis for Inglewood, Calif., where he will build a $1.86 billion stadium. Renderings of Kroenke's state-of-the-art facility overwhelmed the NFL so much it gave the Chargers one year to negotiate with Kroenke for joint use of it. Goodell also already encouraged Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to submit a bid for the region to host the 2021 Super Bowl.

And the rich get richer. Forbes estimated that the Rams' relocation to the Los Angeles area tripled the value of the franchise to nearly $3 billion. That makes Kroenke as savvy as he is slimy, but the NFL only cares about the bottom line, communities be damned. Kroenke allies such as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Seahawks owner Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, didn't amass their fortunes by examining their consciences. This isn't your father's NFL. The league isn't worried about rewarding loyalty as much as feeding America's addiction to football.

It failed about two decades ago, longer if you count Mike Shanahan’s stint coaching the...

Stan Kroenke might build something spectacular in Southern California -- a lot more spectacular than a Jeff Fisher-coached team deserves -- but sorry, I still see the NFL failing in Los Angeles.

Failing again.

It failed about two decades ago, longer if you count Mike Shanahan’s stint coaching the...

(Steve Rosenbloom)

Poor St. Louis never had a chance in a league where market size matters more than ever. Officials in the Gateway City proposed a $1.1 billion riverfront stadium — which included up to $400 million in state and local tax money — to keep the Rams in town. Goodell practically mocked the proposal, calling it "inadequate" and "unsatisfactory.''

Inadequate and unsatisfactory also apply to the credibility of the men who now share an NFL legacy similar to carpetbaggers Art Modell and Robert Irsay. The Scottrade Center crowd chanted "Kroenke sucks!" Tuesday night at the Blues game, and fans will be cursing his name for years. They won't forget that after Kroenke purchased the land last year where the stadium will be built, Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff still declared the team's future would be "right here in St. Louis.'' Until it wasn't.

The only thing the Rams left behind were hard feelings and up to $12 million in annual city and county bonds for the Edward Jones Dome to be paid off annually till 2021. Blame poor attendance if you wish — the Rams finished last in the NFL with an average of 52,402. But imagine how difficult it was to get excited about a team locals sensed was leaving and that hadn't been to the playoffs since 2004.

Head coaches hired in that period of futility include Scott Linehan, Jim Haslett and Steve Spagnuolo — a far cry from the Mike Martz and Dick Vermeil days. St. Louis never became like Indianapolis or Charlotte, cities where success on the field gave fans reason to care enough to buy tickets.

Kroenke forever engraved his infamy in St. Louis but football ineptitude since he became majority owner in 2010 made it easier to chisel. Big money drove the Rams to Inglewood, but bad football compelled ownership to start California dreamin'.

How the precedent Kroenke set potentially affects other small-market teams in similar predicaments on the field and in the stadium remains unknown. Smaller markets hoping for a new stadium or renovation likely will require public-private partnership that the Rams experience makes ill-advised. No city will want to be the next St. Louis, paying millions after the team left town.

Rumors continue to swirl about the future of the Jaguars, whose owner Shahid Khan — a prominent University of Illinois alum worth nearly $6 billion — was asked last week about any interest in relocating his team to St. Louis. Khan made an unsuccessful bid to buy the Rams in 2010.

"I don't see that at all, OK?'' Khan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

OK, but Khan's team finished 27th in attendance and hasn't been to the playoffs since 2007. That combination drove the Rams west. The Jaguars schedule one game a year in London to create revenue — which creates more speculation. And a second team in Chicago in the next decade or so makes more sense than a first one in London, despite the league's infatuation abroad.

It still seems a little farfetched, but not as crazy as it seemed four years — or even four weeks — ago.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 17, 2016, in the Sports section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Idea of adding new team, stadium is less absurd than it once was" —
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